In today’s global economy, the representation of workers’ interests can no longer reside only at national and local levels. As economic governance has gone global and as employers have gone multinational, so must collective representation and the promotion of strong labor standards.

The International Collective Action Initiative engages in research, conducts education and training programs, and organizes major events that bring together varied global perspectives and that help promote public discourse. This Initiative connects the international work of resident and extension faculty members, as well as graduate and undergraduate students. Our work will be done in collaboration with labor, business, non-governmental agencies, government, and other universities and research institutes.

Work includes

• Transatlantic Social Dialogue – in its tenth year, this annual forum draws 40 to 50 labor researchers and trade unionists from both sides of the Atlantic. Read news stories on this event from 2011 and 2012.
• Mobilizing Against Inequality - a four-year research study of immigrant workers and unions in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and France.  Read the first chapter of a book manuscript in progress.
• New project on workers' rights and the effective management in global supply chains - a joint project with Cornell's Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies (CAHRS) and the International Labor Organization (ILO). 
  
• Global Labor Institute's recently held October 10-12 Energy Emergency: Developing Trade Union Strategies for an Energy Transition, an international trade union trade roundtable attended by 75 trade union leaders and policy experts from 19 countries. 
  

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